Newest King Brings Baggage of His Own

When Wayne Gretzky suggested the Kings should acquire a 50-goal scorer, he didn’t mean someone who might score 50 goals over the rest of his career.

But that’s what General Manager Sam McMaster got Thursday when he acquired left wing Kevin Stevens from the Boston Bruins for right wing Rick Tocchet.

The Kings are only 13 years late in getting Stevens to Los Angeles. They drafted him in 1983 but traded him to Pittsburgh for the immortal Anders Hakansson, who scored 52 goals in five seasons. Either Stevens has come full circle or the Kings have, returning to the bad old days when they collected hobbled stars past their prime.

Stevens is a power forward who has come unplugged. He scored 54 goals in 1991-92 and 55 goals the next season, but at least some of his success must be attributed to playing on the same line as Mario Lemieux. Last season, when Lemieux was sitting out to recover from back surgery and the effects of treatment for Hodgkin’s disease, Stevens had only 15 goals in 27 games.

Traded to Boston this season after the Penguins decided to pare their payroll, Stevens showed none of the assertiveness that made him so effective in Pittsburgh. He has been hampered by lower-back problems and told the Boston Herald that in the Bruins’ last game, Monday in Pittsburgh, the stiffness “was the worst it’s been. I’ve got some real tightness in my back. Now I’m having trouble just bending over.”

Instead of using his 6-foot-3, 217-pound body to muscle opponents off the puck and establish position in front of the net, he was hanging on the perimeter, where his size was useless. His work ethic was questioned by Bruin General Manager Harry Sinden and Coach Steve Kasper, and Kasper suggested Stevens might have gotten used to feasting off Lemieux’s setups in Pittsburgh. With the Bruins, who have little finesse and don’t have Lemieux to create many scoring chances, Stevens wasn’t making the effort to generate offense himself.

“This is a different team than he’s been accustomed to, and goals on this team, they don’t come easy,” Kasper said. “We don’t have the makeup of the Pittsburgh Penguins. . . . He’s got to play better.”

He didn’t. In December, he was a scratch even though he was healthy. That had never happened to him before. Earlier this month, he and Cam Neely dressed for a game against Toronto but Kasper left them on the bench. Playing much of the time with Adam Oates, one of the NHL’s most skillful playmakers, and sniper Neely, Stevens had only 10 goals in 41 games and only four goals since Nov. 18.

The Bruins were desperately trying to give away Stevens and the four-plus years on his five-year, $15-million contract, but they found no takers until the Kings called and initiated the deal. They were delighted to get rid of Stevens’ salary and get Tocchet, who is past his prime but has never given less than complete effort. Said an NHL source: “I’m afraid the roof is going to collapse at the FleetCenter because Harry is up there doing handstands.”

The Kings’ only hope of redemption is that Stevens, who grew up in a suburb of Boston and played at Boston College, felt too much pressure in his hometown and will need only a change of scenery to regain his old zest. He’s not a bad guy. “It was a marriage made in heaven and it seemed to deteriorate to hell in a hurry,” Sinden said of Stevens’ brief stay in Boston.

McMaster said the Kings’ doctors checked out the Bruins’ medical records on Stevens and were not concerned. He also said he doesn’t think Stevens is in an irreversible slide. “I see a guy in a bit of a slump, but he hasn’t had enough time to warrant whether that’s a decline,” McMaster said.

There’s no doubt the Kings are in a decline. After a promising start, they’ve been steadily spiraling downward. They’re clinging to the final Western Conference playoff spot by McMaster’s bitten-off fingernails. Calgary, which was 3-15-4 two months ago, has passed them. They’re 0-6-2 since Jan. 8 and haven’t beaten a team with a .500 record since Dec. 6. They’re a dispirited bunch.

And Gretzky’s future has yet to be decided. If the Kings can’t sign Gretzky or they trade him--or if he decides to sign with another team as a free agent--they’ll have to find another center to play with Stevens. There’s also the possibility trading Tocchet, Gretzky’s best friend on the Kings, was a not-so-veiled message from management to Gretzky that they’re going to do things their way, not his.

As for the offensive defenseman Gretzky also urged the Kings to acquire, Bobby Orr could probably be had cheaply. Of course, he’s 47 and has bad knees. He’d fit right in.